Bright Lights Big City

After today I can officially say that Diegem is the coolest race I have ever done. At night, under the lights, tens of thousands of superfans, pouring rain, mud, sand, barriers, screaming fast descents and lung searing climbs. What more could you want? It all started when Josef arrived with a smile on his face.....he received a new GPS from his daughters. Now we will never get lost again! Maybe?

We arrived with plenty of time even though the UCI officials were giving us some looks. Pretty soon the head honcho started telling me we need to arrive 1 hour before the race. I said to him, "I know we are stupid Americans, but we are strong and Matt Kelly was our first World Champion, and we have 2 hours before the race." He looked at his watch and realized we really had 2 hours which was plenty of time and then apologized.

Then we went back to the warming van...I'll hold of on the warming van bit until thursday with the cyclingnews diary....

The course was brutal...it was pouring rain the entire warm up laps and my B bike front brake cable pulled through and back to the bars. I went for the A bike, but a valve stem had been ripped out of the rear wheel and the front shifter was blown....its tough communicating with the mechanics..... I opted for the B bike after a quick adjustment of the front brake.
I was a little cautious on the start circuit, but as I hit the lap I started feeling the good sensations. I was able to step on it and go. I was riding the mud sections good. I was riding the climbs fast and the bike was working good. I was suffering the good way and was pretty happy. Guys were dropping left and right and I was slugging it out. I had one bad lap with 5 to go and lost a group I had been riding with, but then got it back together and finished strong.

After the race the people were crazy. The disco was still rocking, the drunks were holding the drunks up, some crazy Belgian actually jumped into the front window of our van as we were driving(slowly), and on the other side of the van another drunk Belgie decided he would direct traffic for us be reaching in the window and wailing on the horn and waving people out of the way....it actually worked too.
The drive home was comical with the FOX behind the wheel. Then the real pain set in, I think I spent more time cleaning my stuff than I did on the race course. The power washer was a rocking spraying off the 2 pairs of shoes, 2 pairs of riding clothes, etc, etc.
Now I'm having a hot chocolate and waiting for the washing machine. Troy and I have not only been racing on the course but also racing to get the blogs updated. Check his out...its pretty funny.